Saturday, January 17, 2009

Is it possible to find a task manager that gives you the perfect combination of "powerful features" and "easy to use" ? ... Process 3 does it all. You won't need to watch a 10-minute video tutorial just to create your shopping lists. New projects and new tasks (called "items") are made with a keyboard shortcut or a couple of clicks.

The first great feature is the big yellow note pad that sits under every new task you create. Whether you are organizing your doctoral thesis about the polarization of Xenon nucleii, or doing something far more complex -- such as finding a birthday gift for your niece -- Process's yellow pad lets you immediately add essential information. And whenever you click on the task, that information appears exactly where you need it: right in front of your eyes.

If your task needs to link to more information, then you simply drag any file to the bar above the notepad. Drag a photo or URL link, and you'll see the picture or the website in the viewing window. If you link this task to a word processing file (such as .txt or .rtf) then this file appears, and when you make a change in the window in front of you, your source file is updated as well. That's a useful feature found in my $ 1,200 InDesign software: I hardly expected to discover it here.

Of course you can set priorities for your tasks. It's easy, and the result is a colored bar that lets you see the big picture in one glance. When you're ready to get the most out of this software, you can set up "smart projects". You choose the conditions, and whichever tasks meet those conditions are placed into the smart project. For example, I can choose to place all the "highest priority" tasks, from all my projects, into this one smart project. The result shows me what needs to be done today, or very soon.

I'd love to see some new features added in the future: a folder to hide projects I'm not currently working on; a global search; and a way to back up all the projects with one click. These are small things compared with the essentials that Process 3 provides, including many features that I haven't yet tried (such as sharing projects with colleagues and friends). Simplicity, power and elegance -- at a low price -- all combine to make Process 3 my favorite task manager. Judge for yourself: visit the developer's home page, and try this amazing software, free, for 15 days.

All my project ideas are now in one place, and all the new ideas can't possibly get lost. Ah, to be organized! A strange and wonderful feeling!

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